Open AccessCounterstreaming magnetized plasmas with kappa distributions – II. Perpendicular wave propagation
Author(s) -
Lazar M.,
Tautz R. C.,
Schlickeiser R.,
Poedts S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15647.x
Subject(s) - physics , filamentation , instability , plasma , wavenumber , anisotropy , magnetic field , astrophysical plasma , solar wind , perpendicular , computational physics , atomic physics , astrophysics , mechanics , optics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , mathematics , geometry
The analysis of the stability and the dispersion properties of a counterstreaming plasma system with kappa distributions are extended here with the investigation of perpendicular instabilities. Purely growing filamentation (Weibel‐like) modes propagating perpendicular to the background magnetic field can be excited in streaming plasmas with or without an excess of parallel temperature. In this case, however, the effect of suprathermal tails of kappa populations is opposite to that obtained for parallel waves: the growth rates can be higher and the instability faster than for Maxwellian plasmas. The unstable wavenumbers also extend to a markedly larger broadband making this instability more likely to occur in space plasmas with anisotropic distributions of kappa‐type. The filamentation instability of counterstreaming magnetized plasmas could provide a plausible mechanism for the origin of two‐dimensional transverse magnetic fluctuations detected at different altitudes in the solar wind.